Astro-Notes: July 30 Practice

*** The biggest news today was Justin Rogers starting in place of McKelvin. But don't burn your #21 jerseys just yet. I saw McKelvin looking very flexible in warmup drills and in the punt return group with Woods and Graham.

I spent a lot of time at the defensive end of the field watching the very brisk LB drills. LB Coach Driesbach has the LBs divided in half (not A Team - B Team as far as I could tell but you may have an opinion), and they'd run 2 different drills, then the groups would switch. One group was Bryan Scott, Moats, Bradham, Alonso, White and Brian Smith. The other group was Keith Pough, Jerry Hughes, Dowtin, and Kourtnei Brown. Kudos to this teaching technique, as players aren't sitting around waiting their turn. Twice as efficient! I have attended Training Camp for years, and haven't seen Bills LBs doing most all of these drills.

The other drill was to improve one's angle to the ball, with players running to cross another player coming from another spot. Hughes is the quickest. Chris White's hustle keeps me going back to him. Maybe it's the 51 on his jersey.

The next 2 drills, one a Lev Sled drill and one a quick diagnosis drill, made me confirm Bryan Scott still has it. He had to move the Lev Sled upward, push it to one side, and assume a ready position, like LBs do when disengaging a blocker. On the other drill, I liked seeing Jerry Hughes's ability to pass rush. One LB had to block him Hughes until O'Neil (as the QB) ran one way or the other. Kudos also to Blatnick and Brown who looked solid. Why was Blatnick there? He might be one of the hybrid guys like Hughes.

Another set of drill had the LBs in groups of 2, blocked by 2 men, where one LB faked a pass rush then went back into coverage and where the other LB continued the pass rush. Alonso's quickness and Hughes, Moats and Bradham get a shout-out here.

----------I watched the punters. They both have a good leg; Stahovich is outweighed by Powell 243 to 197 and Powell admittedly has the longer kick. Props to Stahovich for dropping one in the coffin corner from 45-50 yards away, then bouncing it out of bounds.-----Best catch by WR today: Woods from EJ, vs Rob Brooks. But Chris Hogan made a great deep pass reception too.

Best INT was Moats, but several excellent PBUs including Chris White (who also dropped a sure INT), Moats, and Alonso.

RB's made some good plays today, the best being a Tashard Choice run around the right side. CJ Spiller had 4 consecutive receptions, and has become an early favorite dumpoff for EJ. Fred caught 2 in traffic, beat Dowtin once but Alonso successfully defended a pass to Freddy. Choice "slipped on an anthill" on one play.

Kolb won't force the play, shooting the pigskin at the sideline 4 times. Tuel and EJ each took off with the football on at least one occasion. Tuel gained 20 yards. EJ was extremely fast on his scamper.

Being unable to attend the practices, I really appreciate the updates and honest opinions Astro! Thanks for the pick me up. Got my night tickets for August 9th. Cant make it tomorrow but keep em coming!

youve seen more of the offense than i so far but i wouldnt be surprised to see a lot of 3 wide (with stevie in the slot potentially) single back formations if the coaches feel like they can trust woods and graham

youve seen more of the offense than i so far but i wouldnt be surprised to see a lot of 3 wide (with stevie in the slot potentially) single back formations if the coaches feel like they can trust woods and graham

from what it looks like yesterday, seeing how well polished Woods already is and how well Graham showed he can play with a QB that can get him the deep ball, if expect a lot of this as well.

I've been thinking this! TJ seems to have having a lot of chemistry with EJ, and Woods has the size and blocking skill to be great as a slot receiver. With Chandler and Spiller in play, we could run a whole host of plays really effectively.

It's interesting to note that the OL is looking gassed. They're really going to need to get into shape if the plan is to keep with this up tempo offense.